Nothing can beat homemade stuff. Learn how to make cauliflower rice from scratch today. You can now make your low-carb cauli rice with your Instant Pot quite easily. Check out how to make perfect cauliflower rice!
Plant-Based Rice | Low Carb Rice:
As the low-carb diet is getting popular, the Plant-based rice recipes are getting equally popular. I see the extensive use of cauliflower in all the low-carb recipes. I, too, posted roasted cauliflower steaks last year. And now it’s the time for the famous cauli rice or cauliflower rice.
Disclaimer: I am not following any particular low-carb diet. The cauliflower rice intrigued me a lot, and I wanted to try and substitute for rice for a few meals. Hence I tried and sharing the recipe that I tried.
So what is cauliflower rice? Grated cauliflower, cooked or partially cooked, is the cauliflower rice. It’s an excellent substitute for white or brown rice. Cauliflower rice is healthy, low-carb, vegan, and, of course, gluten-free as well.
How I Make My Cauliflower Rice From Scratch?
Let me tell you upfront – My way of making cauliflower rice might seem lengthy, but folks, I assure you, this cauliflower rice is germ-free, and you will love the texture. It’s not mushy, and it’s grainy like rice.
My cauliflower rice recipe involves four main steps,
- Clean the cauliflower
- Soak and deworm the cauliflower
- Cook the cauliflower
- Grate the cauliflower
Why Soak and Cook the Cauliflower?
I can hear you asking, why can’t I grate the raw cauliflower or pulse it in a food processor?
I tried it once, but I didn’t like the raw taste of the cauliflower rice, and I tried sauteing, but I didn’t like the texture. I am so picky, huh? Also, a couple of times, I found some worms in the cauliflower. So I started to follow this soak and cook method.
✓ First, you soak the trimmed cauliflower in salt and turmeric water. Turmeric, as we all know, is an excellent antiseptic, and it helps to kills germs. So soaking the cauliflower in turmeric water deworms it and also kills those germs.
✓ Secondly, steaming the cauliflower in Instant Pot removes the raw taste to an extent. Yes, only to a degree but way better than raw cauliflower.
Why Can’t I Mash the Cauliflower? Why Grate?
Again, this is a personal preference. Mashed cauliflower didn’t go well when mixed with curries and South Indian sambar and kuzhambu varieties. So I started to grate them.
I use my boxed grater, and with a boxed grater, you can grate the cauliflower without a mess. Also, I use the big blades or cheese grater blades to grate my cauliflower, and texture is more like rice.
If the texture is not a problem, then you can mash the steamed cauliflower using a fork or potato masher.
How Does Cauli Rice Taste?
I won’t say it taste like rice. It does taste like cauliflower. :-) As we steam it, the raw taste/smell is significantly less. It takes time to get acquired to the taste.
With proper seasonings, it tastes great. If you are planning to substitute it for rice in Indian meals, don’t season it much. Let the curries and sides do its magic. Let me be honest here. I liked cauliflower rice with spicy curries and kuzhambu, sambar. But I couldn’t relish it with rasam and yogurt. As you can see in the picture, when I made this, I served it with rajma curry. Instead of rajma chawal, it is rajma cauli-chawal. :-)
How Long Can I store?
This cauliflower rice stays suitable for up to four days. I haven’t tried storing beyond that. Make sure you allow the grated or mashed cauliflower to cool before storing it. Also, do not add salt to the cauliflower rice; if you are storing it in the refrigerator, the salt will ooze out water, and it will make it soggy. So add the seasonings before serving.
How to Make Cauliflower Rice?
Clean the Cauliflower:
Remove the cauliflower leaves and also trim the stems, like below.
The cauliflower that I used was approx 584 grams, and after removing the leaves and stems, it weighed 300 grams.
Soak the Cauliflower in Turmeric Water:
In a big bowl, add 8 cups of water at room temperature and add the ground turmeric and salt. Mix it well. Now place the cauliflower upside down in the water and make sure the cauliflower is entirely inside the water. This soaking helps in removing the worms and germs. Soak this for 10 minutes and discard the water.
Cook the Cauliflower:
- Now place the cauliflower in the steamer basket.
- Add 1 cup of water to the inner pot and place the trivet. Then keep the steamer basket with the cauliflower on the trivet and close the lid.
- Make sure the vent is in the sealing position.
- Press the manual or the pressure cook button and set the cooking time to one minute at high pressure.
- When the IP beeps, move the vent to the venting positing and release the pressure quickly. Carefully open the lid and take the steamer basket out.
- Let the cauliflower cool for 20 minutes.
Grate the Cauliflower:
- You can break the cauliflower into small florets like below or grate them whole also.
- I used my boxed grater and used this bigger blade and grated the cauliflower. I know this is a bit time consuming, but the cauliflower looks more like rice.
- After grating, I got approximately 2 cups of cauliflower rice.
And that’s it. The cauliflower rice is ready. Serve it with your favorite curry. Let it cool before refrigerating.
Recipe Notes-
- Cauliflower Cooking Time: I have tried both zero minute cooking time and one minute cooking time. If you are not particular about the raw taste of cauliflower, you can go with “zero minutes” cooking.
- Can I Soak Cauliflower in Warm Water? Yes, you can. In that case, soak it for five minutes and also pressure cook for zero minutes. You don’t need to cook for one minute.
- Can I Chop and Cook the Cauliflower? You can chop and steam the cauliflower. But after steaming the entire cauliflower, you can easily break the florets. Either way is fine.
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Cauliflower Rice | How to Make Cauli Rice
Ingredients
- 1 medium head cauliflower the one that I used for this recipe was 584 grams
- 8 cups water to soak the cauliflower head
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 cup water for the Instant Pot
Instructions
Clean the Cauliflower:
- Remove the cauliflower leaves and also trim the stems, like below. The cauliflower that I used was approx 584 grams, and after removing the leaves and stems, it weighed 300 grams.
Soak the Cauliflower in Turmeric Water:
- In a big bowl, add 8 cups of water at room temperature and add the ground turmeric and salt. Mix it well. Now place the cauliflower upside down in the water and make sure the cauliflower is entirely inside the water. This soaking helps in removing the worms and germs. Soak this for 10 minutes and discard the water.
Cook the Cauliflower:
- Now place the cauliflower in the steamer basket. Add 1 cup of water to the inner pot and place the trivet. Then keep the steamer basket with the cauliflower on the trivet and close the lid. Make sure the vent is in the sealing position.
- Press the manual or the pressure cook button and set the cooking time to one minute at high pressure.
- When the IP beeps, move the vent to the venting positing and release the pressure quickly. Carefully open the lid and take the steamer basket out.
- Let the cauliflower cool for 20 minutes.
Grate the Cauliflower:
- You can break the cauliflower into small florets like below or grate them whole also.
- I used my boxed grater and used this bigger blade and grated the cauliflower. I know this is a bit time consuming, but the cauliflower looks more like rice.
- After grating, I got approximately 2 cups of cauliflower rice.
- And that's it. The cauliflower rice is ready. Serve it with your favorite curry. Let it cool before refrigerating.
Notes
- Cauliflower Cooking Time: I have tried both zero minute cooking time and one minute cooking time. If you are not particular about the raw taste of cauliflower, you can go with "zero minutes" cooking.
- Can I Soak Cauliflower in Warm Water? Yes, you can. In that case, soak it for five minutes and also pressure cook for zero minutes. You don't need to cook for one minute.
- Can I Chop and Cook the Cauliflower? You can chop and steam the cauliflower. But after steaming the entire cauliflower, you can easily break the florets. Either way is fine.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
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